Kotickâ??s spectacular pledge to â??cut funâ??

Activision boss wants to turn developers into economists and â??take the fun out of game designâ?

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Outspoken Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has again stunned onlookers with a string of extraordinary statements regarding game design, Activision’s business plans, and the future of the industry.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Kotick rounded off his 45 minute speech by discussing how game design can progress by instilling a “culture of thrift.”

“The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games,” he said.

The conference speech, first reported by Gamespot, was not quite the miserly outlook on game design that a multitude of blogs are implying, but instead Kotick’s philosophy that sustainable game design works best when development studios have an appreciation for the finances that drive them.

"You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly," Kotick said.

The Activision Blizzard CEO added that he has tried to instill "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" into company culture as a response to the global economic downturn.

"We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression,” he added.

Earlier on in the keynote, Kotick spoke of how he expects Guitar Hero to bypass consoles altogether, as well as “many” of the company’s other products. MCV has the full report on this here.